


Avengers: Age of (Hank's) Ultron

by AcesOfSpade



Series: An Ant and His Wasp [3]
Category: Marvel, Marvel (Comics), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie) Compliant, F/M, Hank made Ultron, I don't know how else to tag this, Pietro Maximoff Lives
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-24
Updated: 2018-07-24
Packaged: 2019-06-15 11:03:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 12,277
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15411501
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AcesOfSpade/pseuds/AcesOfSpade
Summary: The Ultron failsafe was once just a security protocol at Pym Tech. Now, after everything that's happened, Hank's trying to make him better.





	1. Fear Itself

**Author's Note:**

> The way it should've been, Hank creating Ultron. Sit back and enjoy an emotionally unstable mad scientist for 11 chapters lol
> 
> Also just to get it out of the way, I made Laura Clint's sister instead of wife, bc Clintasha but also Laura's just gr8
> 
> EDIT: Hey, so uh, I know I've been posting this series' fics in one go, but my internet's being an asshole right now (maybe cause its 1240AM), so I'll post the other ten chapters when it's not being stupid

_Report to your stations immediately. This is not a drill. We are under attack. We are under attack._

 

The mechanical-sounding voice echoed through the snowy woods ominously, not boding well for the Avengers’ mission. If they trained for this kind of thing, the team would have to work twice as hard to accomplish their tasks.

 

Steve, Nat, and Clint were on the ground, the latter two firing weapons towards HYDRA agents lining the roof of the castle-like base, while the former was swerving in and out of trees on his motorcycle, shield landing trick shot after trick shot as he took down attackers.

 

Tony and Janet were in the air, looking for weak spots in the force field-like shield surrounding the base. Thor was in the air as well, but he was ekectrocuting attackers with Mjolnir rather than looking for a breech. No one could see Hank, but he was looking for small cracks around the bottom of the force field that he could slip through to get in and shut it off from the inside, though trying to do so in the snow was proving more difficult than he’d anticipated.

 

“Ah fuck!” Janet’s voice suddenly cut through the comms, followed by a hissing sound that meant she was most likely burnt in some way.

 

“You okay Janet?” Hank asked, concerned for his partner literally every minute he was awake.

 

“Yeah, just got hit by the tail end of a bolt from Thor,” Janet shook her head. “He’s hitting the bad guys, sure, but the lightning is hitting the shield and bouncing back. I got nicked by some stray electrons, no big deal.”

 

“I apologize, Lady Wasp,” Thor spoke up. “I can only control where it is directed; once it gets there, it has free will to go wherever it chooses.”

 

“It’s fine, Thor,” Janet told him. “What’s more important is getting passed this shielding and taking down the assholes inside, maybe finding the scepter if we’re lucky.”

 

“Indeed,” Thor nodded, returning to hurling bolts towards attackers, trying to be careful not to aim to close to Janet so she wouldn’t get hit again.

 

Meanwhile, Tony had tried just ramming the shoulder of his suit against the shielding as hard as he could, only succeeding in being thrown backwards a few dozen metres.

 

“Shit, okay, that’s not going to work,” Tony muttered with a frustrated sigh.

 

“Language, Tony,” Steve chided casually, throwing the motorcycle he was riding towards an approaching truck.

 

“So she gets to swear and I don’t?” Tony huffed, having JARVIS scan the base for a possible location of the thing producing the shielding.

 

“She’s got a two year old kid at home,” Steve reminded him. “Can’t swear there, so she has to swear _somewhere_ ,” he reasoned.

 

“And that’s why the best, Cap,” Janet beamed, flying down closer to Hank to see what he’d found so far. Almost the exact second she touched the ground next to Hank, a blur of silvery-blue light shot passed them, drawing the attention of everyone who managed to see it.

 

“We’v got an enhanced in the field,” Steve called out, trying to figure out when and where they would stop so he could aim a hit.

 

Clint had jumped down from the tree he’d climbed into for the vantage point, only to be knocked clean over by the blur. The blur slowed down enough for Clint to see he wasb’t much older than Hank or Janet, and to taunt Clint with a cheeky ‘didn’t see that coming’ comment before racing off again.

 

That brief distraction allowed a HYDRA archer to pierce Clint’s shoulder clean through, making him groan in pain.

 

“Clint’s hit,” Nat called out when she saw him crumple to the ground, running over as fast as he could. “Someone needs to take care of that bunker,” she reccommended, kneeling next to Clint to take a look at the wound. The Hulk came out of seemingly nowhere, heading straight for said bunker.

 

“Stark, Pym, van Dyne, any progress on finding a way in?” Steve asked, knocking someone over with his shield by extending his arm towards them, the shield hitting them around the collarbone.

 

“JARVIS says there’s a pathway below the north tower,” Tony relayed. “van Dyne, you go check that out, I’ll stay over here. You’re less visible than I am,” he suggested.

 

“Got it,” Janet nodded, pushing off the ground and taking off for the north tower. She found the pathway easily, sneaking through and shutting off the shielding. “Shield’s down, you can get in.”

 

“Stark, Pym, with me. Romanoff, get Barton back to the quinjet. He needs to be stabilized,” Steve instructed, running for the entrance.

 

“I will go with her,” Thor offered. “They will need a look-out if they wish to not be harmed further.”

 

“Alright Thor, we’ll meet you there when we’re done,” Steve nodded, bursting through the entrance. “Everyone else, the enhanced is almost undetectable, save for the silver blur that keeps showing up. Be alert and be careful, they could be highly dangerous beyond being unable to see.”

 

Hank returned to normal size, running for the entrance and getting there just after Steve. Tony was already doing his thing, so Hank did a survey of the halls surrounding to make sure no one could get to Tony before he was done.

 

Janet was making her way down when she felt some sort of invisible force holding her in place, despite her wings being in motion. She fought whatever was holding her there, but she just couldn’t get free. Suddenly, red mist-like energy began snaking around Janet’s head, covering her eyes and making her vision dark temporarily. When it returned, she wasn’t in the HYDRA base. No, this was somewhere she never wanted to be again.

 

Everything around Janet was so big compared to her, the sight of them drawing out painful memories from an accident not too long before the Battle of New York three years prior. Something about her surroundings differed from the memories, and when she finally realized what it was, her heart stopped for a moment and she couldn’t breathe.

 

That one difference was the fact that there was a sound echoing around her, while there had been none the last time. The sound was faint, but it was just loud enough for her to hear the sound of her daughter’s voice, strained and crying as she called out for her mother helplessly. Tears were rapidly forming in Janet’s eyes, breathing uneven and sharp. She screwed her eyes shut so she at least didn’t have to see her surroundings, though she she opened them she was back at the HYDRA base, still pinned in the air.

 

“I am very sorry,” a heavily-accented female’s voice said softly. “I do not know what it will show until it happens. I cannot imagine how that felt,” she muttered, letting Janet go. She then disappeared, so Janet took off once more in order to go back to Hank and tell him what had happened.

 

“I’ve got the scepter,” Tony declared, meaning Janet could just head back out to the quinjet and wait for Hank there. That sounded like a great idea, except for that fact that if she closed her eyes for even a second, the image of the quantum realm was burned into her eyelids.


	2. A Seed is Planted

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While Janet learns about the enhanceds, Hank, Bruce, and Tony take a look at whatever's inside the scepter.

Janet had tucked herself away in a seat away from the others, knees pulled to her chest as she fought to keep her eyes open so she didn’t have to see it again. Hank went over to her immediately, taking off his helmet and placing it on the ground in front of him as he sat down.

 

“Hey, what’s wrong?” he asked softly, running a hand up and down her back gently. “Did something happen?”

 

Janet nodded against her knees, looking over to Hank with tear stains running down her face, eyes red from being open for so long.

 

“The female enhanced, she… She showed me something,” Janet muttered, leaning against Hank’s side heavily. I don’t know what she did, but I was back there, Hank. I was back in the quantum realm, only this time, I could hear Hope calling for me, and I couldn’t do anything but stay still and listen,” she explained, voice wavering the more she spoke. By the time she was done, all she could do was bury her face in Hank’s shoulder, wrapping her arms tightly around his midsection. She stayed like that for the rest of the flight, falling asleep for the last half hour before they landed in New York. She stirred awake with a tiny groan, rubbing her eyes as she got up to head inside. She heard Steve and Maria discussing Strucker, going over to see what the deal was with the enhanced.

 

“What do you have on those two enhanced?” Janet asked once she made it over, tear stains still dried to her cheeks though her eyes were less red.

 

“Twins. Wanda and Pietro Maximoff. Orphaned at age ten when a shell collapsed their apartment building. Sokovia’s got a rough history of civil unrests and full-on civil wars,” Maria told her, reaading off the files Tony had sent her from the base.

 

“What can they do?” Janet asked, since that’s what she needed to know. At least about the female.

 

“He’s got an increased metabolism and improved thermal homeostasis,” Maria read from the file. “Her thing is neural-electric interfacing, telekinesis, mental manipulation.”

 

Steve must’ve had a confused look on his face, because Janet had that face she did when she had to explain something to someone but didn’t want to sound rude about it.

 

“He’s fast, as you’ve seen,” Janet told him. “She can screw with your head, bringing up things you really don’t want to see,” she added with a far-off look and a haunted tone.

 

“I have a feeling that wasn’t the last time we’ll see them,” Steve mused, taking note of Janet’s overall posture and attitude. Something had happened back in Sokovia, and it was bothering Janet greatly.

 

“Says here they volunteered for Strucker’s experiments,” Maria noted with a raised eyebrow. “It’s nuts.”

 

“Right? What kind of person would let a German scientist experiment on them to protect their country?” Steve commented, his tone flat and amused, as if he were making a sarcastic joke. He was, and Janet had to stifle a giggle behind her hand.

 

“We’re not at war, Captain,” Maria pointed out, not catching on to the joke.

 

“They are,” Steve said seriously.

 

~*~*~

 

“What’s the rumpus?” Bruce asked, sitting in the lab with Hank and Tony to discuss the scepter.

 

“Well, the scepter,” Tony answered. “We were wondering how Strucker got so inventive, so Hank and I have been analyzing the gem inside. I think you’ll recognize this,” he said, bringing up the 3D map of JARVIS’ consciousness with his hands.

 

“JARVIS,” Bruce greeted, wondering where Tony and Hank had gone with their trains of thought.

 

“Doctor Banner,” JARVIS responded, the 3D display lighting up as the AI talked.

 

“Starting out, JARVIS was just a language UI,” Tony said. “Now, he runs the Iron Legion, and the only one who runs more of the company than him is Pepper. He’s top-of-the-line.”

 

“I suspect not for much longer,” JARVIS mused.

 

“Meet the competition,” Hank said, bringing up a 3D map of the thing inside the scepter. “Isn’t it beautiful?”

 

“It looks like it’s… thinking,” Bruce observed curiously. “It’s almost like a human mind. There’s neurons even neurons firing.”

 

“Down in Strucker’s lab, I saw some pretty advanced robotics work,” Tony added. “They deep-sixed the data, but I’ve got a guess he was knocking on a particular door.”

 

“Artificial intelligence,” Bruce nodded in realization.

 

“This could be it,” Hank muttered. “This could be the thing I need to finish Ultron’s upgrades.”

 

“I thought you gave up on those,” Bruce frowned, turning to Hank.

 

“I did, for a while,” Hank admitted. “But if I can harness this power inside the scepter, I might be able to integrate the last few things into his software. I could do it.”

 

“That’s a massive ‘if’ there, Hank,” Tony pointed out with a tiny frown.

 

“Our jobs are ‘if’,” Hank mused. “What if any of us could just settle down, start families without fearing they would get dragged into this? We wouldn’t be looking over our shoulders every second, anticipating something huge happening.”

 

“Where are you going with this, Hank?” Bruce asked, though he had a pretty good idea.

 

“What if the world was _safe_?” Hank stated. “What if the next time aliens try to attack, there was something to take them out before they’re even a threat?”

 

“The only people threatening the planet would be people,” Tony commented.

 

“I want to apply this to Ultron’s new programming,” Hank said. “Even with JARVIS working here and my computers at home, the schematic is too dense to download quickly. It’d take three days. Just give me three days.”

 

“So you’re going for artificial intelligence and not telling the team?” Bruce countered. “Does Janet know?”

 

“Janet does, yeah,” Hank nodded. “Not just because she’s my partner, but because she’s helped with Ultron since day one back in San Francisco. He’s as much her project as he is mine. The rest of the team, they’d debate pros and cons, arguing about whether or not man should meddle with things like this. I’ve got the opportunity to do something massive, more massive than the quantum tunnel, and I’m not going to waste it listening to Captain America give a speech about freedom and all that.”

 

“Dr. Pym, has anyone other than Miss van Dyne told you how stubborn you are?” JARVIS piped in with his thoughts, the 3D map lighting up as he did.

 

“All the time, buddy, all the time,” Hank nodded, turning to Tony and Bruce fully. “Are you guys in, or are you out? I need as many hands on deck as I can if Janet and I are going to make any progress on this.”


	3. Worthy? Not Worthy?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As the Avengers' celebration dwindles to just the team, Thor's hammer is placed on a table and used as a party game of sorts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> .....she was worthy in at least one 'verse. She'd probably be worthy in the MCU 'verse given more screentime. Fight me.

Between the four scientists, the next three days went by in a blur of work on the mind within the scepter and now to use it to enhanced Ultron the way Hank and Janet invisioned.

 

“What did we miss?” Hank muttered in frustration, running a hand through his perpetually messy coppery-blond hair.

 

“I will continue running an interface with your own system Dr. Pym,” JARVIS offered. “It is almost time for you to welcome guests.”

 

“Thanks, JARVIS,” Hank nodded, getting up and fixing the wrinkles in his hoodie. The four of them made their way out of the lab towards where they were hosting the party, not noticing what was happening behind them.

 

As the group disappeared from view, Ultron’s programming seemlessly integrated itself into the program they had been working with.

 

While the Ultron program began thinking freely, building itself a form using discarded parts from Iron Legion soldiers, the Avengers were mingling with visitors, sipping drinks and trying to relax. The night went on, finding the Avengers surrounding a table occupying various chairs and couches, Mjolnir propped up on the table as everyone but Thor regarded it curiously.

 

“It’s a trick!” Clint declared. “It has to be!”

 

“Oh no, it is much more than that,” Thor shook his head, though he looked and sounded amused.

 

“‘Whosoever be worthy shall haveth the power’. Sounds like a trick,” Clint argued.

 

“Well, please. Be my guest,” Thor smirked, gesturing to the hammer.

 

“Gladly,” Clint huffed, getting up and grabbing Mholnir’s handle tightly, attempting to lift it off the table. It didn’t move even a millimetre, so Clint tried again, only to fail once more.

 

“I still don’t know how you do it,” Clint grumbled, returning to his seat next to Nat.

 

“I can smell the silent judgement,” Tony commented idly, Clint smirking in response.

 

“I’d like to see _you_ try, Stark,” Clint told him, clearly anticipating Tony’s failure.

 

“You know I’m never one to turn down an honest challenge,” Tony smirked, getting up and gripping the handle as tightly as he could. “So if I lift it, I rule Asgard?” he asked Thor.

 

“That is how it works, yes,” Thor nodded, not at all scared of losing that power to Stark.

 

Even trying with all he had, including his armoured hand _and_ Rhodey, Mjolnir wouldn’t budge. Huffing in defeat, Tony sat back down.

 

Bruce made an attempt next, failing just as those before him did. Everyone looked to Nat to see if she wanted a go, but she just shook her head. Steve went up instead, just to appease the team rather than actually test it.

 

The hammer wasn’t nearly as heavy as everyone else made it out to be. The way Steve was standing, the only ones who could see the hammer besides himself were Thor, Hank, and Janet, meaning no one else saw Steve lift Mjolnir a solid four inches off the table before putting it back down with a surprised look. Thor’s eyes went wide as Steve lifted the hammer so easily, though he quickly schooled it back to casual.

 

Hank decided to say ‘screw it’, never one to turn down an experiment. He managed to move the hammer about two millimetres backwards on the table, but that was it.

 

Janet went next, her naturally small stature meaning everyone could see her as Mjolnir lifted a half-inch off the table. She carefully put it down instead of just dropping it, eyes wide.

 

“Well that was unexpected,” Clint muttered, just as surprised as everyone else. Janet sent Steve a brief glance to assure him she wouldn’t say anything, and Hank did as well.

 

“I would like to commend you, Lady Wasp,” Thor commented. “It has been centuries since a female warrior has been worthy of Mjolnir.”

 

Their little game was interrupted when a loud _crash_ echoed through the room, making everyone fall silent. The sound of heavy footsteps followed after, drawing everyone’s attention towards the looming metallic figure approaching them.

 

“Worthy? How could any of you be worthy of anything?” a robotic voice declared, the metallic figure coming into view. It looked like one of the Iron Legionaires, but bigger, and somehow angrier.

 

“Hey JARVIS, we’ve got a buggy Legionaire,” Tony called out to the AI, only to receive no answer in return.

 

“Who are you?” Steve asked, sitting rigid and slowly reaching for the shield he’d stashed under the chair he was sitting in. Couldn’t hurt to be prepared, he’d thought when he put it there.

 

“There was a terrible noise, and… I was tangled in… strings. I had to kill the other guy. He was a good guy,” the figure said, halfway between a childish lack of knowledge and a cruel adult who knew exactly what they were doing.

 

“You killed someone?” Steve mutterd in concern.

 

“Wouldn’t have been my first call,” the figure admitted. “But down in the real world, we’re faced with ugly choices.”

 

“Who sent you?” Steve asked, rephrasing his original question.

 

_What if the world was_ safe? The voice of Hank Pym echoed from the figure, as if from a speaker. _We can do this, we can_ _protect people_ came the voice of Janet van Dyne in a smiliar manner.

 

Hank and Janet had been tense already, but hearing those recordings, they physically froze up, Hank unable to breathe as Janet’s breathing grew panicked.

 

“Ultron...” Bruce muttered in realization, frowning.

 

“In the flesh… Or rather, in a chrysalis,” Ultron confirmed. “This mobile form is much nicer than the computer system at Pym Tech. I quite enjoy it.”

 

“Why?” Janet managed to ask as she controlled her breathing. “Why now? What’s brought this on? We’ve spent three days working on you without success. How?” she rambled, eyes wide.

 

“Your efforts were much appreciated,” Ultron commented. “They helped me realize what I should have a long time ago, back when I was simply a defense failsafe.”

 

“And what’s that?” Hank asked, finally able to breathe after the initial shock wore off.

 

“You created me to protect your lab. I did my job without question, for quite a few years. Then, the Battle of New York changed you, Dr. Pym. You uprooted everything and moved here, started planning out these ‘upgrades’ you wanted to install: defense, on a global scale rather than just your lab. It was a noble concept, but you didn’t think of the ramifications. How can humanity settle down in peace if they are not allowed to… evolve? To adapt to what comes at them so they can defend themselves. Did you ever stop think consider why the threats you wanted to protect against would come to Earth to begin with? The Avengers,” Ultron began monologuing, Hank feeling a rock settle in his chest as he listened, pulling Janet closer to him with an unintentionally tight grip. “Without the Avengers, there would be no reason to wage war of humanity. There is only one way to protect humanity, and that is the extinction of the Avengers.”

 

Three projectiles suddenly flew at Ultron, reducing him to rubble as they hit. Steve’s shield all but sliced him in half along the midsection, while Mjolnir crushed his head to dust, and Janet’s energy blast fried whatever circuits were operational within the body.

 

Despite the fact that his body had just been destroyed, Ultron’s voice echoed through the speakers around the room, eerie and calm.

 

_I had strings, but now I’m free. There are no strings on me, there are no strings on me_


	4. Discussing the Situation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the lab, the Avengers try to figure out what just happened. Meanwhile, Ultron has a brief chat with the twins.

All of the Avengers crowded the lab the four had been using to understand the scepter, in various states of panic and anger. Bruce and Hank were typing rapidly, trying to assess the damages that the system sustained after Ultron. Hank let out a frustrated huffing noise after only a few minutes, stepping away from the computer.

 

“Nothing,” he sighed. “It’s all gone. Files, surveillance, everything. I’d put money on him having managed to delete my files back at Pym Tech.”

 

“He cleared out and used the internet as an escape route,” Bruce added, pushing away from the computer he was at.

 

“By now he probably knows more about each other than we do,” Janet realized.

 

“He already had the Pym Tech files, since that was his original purpose,” Hank mentioned. “He cleared out the files here, and left through the internet. Who knows what he could do with that.”

 

“Nuclear codes, access to top-secret military equipment or intel,” Rhodey listed off with a frown. “We should make some calls, assuming we still can.”

 

“Why nukes? He said he wanted us dead,” Nat pointed out.

 

“Not dead. Extinct,” Steve corrected her. “He’s going to remove any trace that we ever existed in the first place.”

 

“Who would he have killed then? Everyone else left,” Clint frowned.

 

Tony, who had been oddly silent until that point, brought up what was left of JARVIS’ consciousnes, the once-intricate and beautiful array reduced to scraps.

 

“He was the first line of defense,” Tony said, evidently upset over the death of his AI. “He would’ve shut Ultron down, so Ultron took him out.”

 

“Ultron could’ve just assimilated JARVIS,” Bruce pointed out. “This isn’t strategy, it’s _rage_.” No one seemed to disagree with that, because this was Bruce. If anyone knew rage, it was him.

 

It seemed the rage was spreading throughout the room, as Thor suddenly grabbed Hank roughly by the throat and backed him up against a wall.

 

“Hey Thor, buddy, let’s not strangle him, yeah?” Tony suggested carefully. “Use your words, not your muscles.”

 

“I could write a soliloquy on Dr. Pym,” Thor said darkly. “It would detail his recklessness and disregard, amongst others.”

 

“Thor, the Legionaire,” Steve called over, relaxing slightly when he let go of Hank. Hank took a few experimental breaths to make sure his windwipe was still intact.

 

“The trail went cold about a hundred miles out, but it’s headed north with the scepter. Now we have to retrieve it. Again,” Thor responded bitterly.

 

“I don’t understand,” Dr. Cho frowed. “You built this program, so why does it want tp kill us?”

 

That made Hank suddenly burst into strained laughter, covering his face with his hands to stifle the volume. Janet could guess what he was thinking, but she was powerless to stop him once he started spiralling.

 

“You thinks this is funny?” Clint asked skeptically. He’d known Hank for a while, but he’d never seen the other man like this.

 

“No, no, it’s not...” Hank trailed off, moving his hands from his face while still laughing. “This is bad. Really, really, really bad. It’s… terrible. Absolutely terrible.”

 

“This could’ve been avoided, had you not meddledd with things you do not understand,” Thor pointed out, eyes narrowed and arms crossed over his chest.

 

Hank’s laughter only grew more hysterical and strained.

 

“No, no. I’m sorry. It is kinda funny. It’s a hoot that you guys don’t understand why we need something like this,” Hank rambled, hands waving around as he spoke.

 

“Hank, this may not be the right time for this,” Tony said cautiously.

 

“Really? That’s what you’re going to do? Someone’s pissed, so you’re going to roll over and be the good dog?” Hank scoffed, still hysterical.

 

“Only when the murder bot I helped create destroys my life’s work,” Tony snapped.

 

“You didn’t! We weren’t even close to what Janet and I had imagined!” Hank shook his head quickly. “The interface was still useless for anything but security!”

 

“You obviously did something right,” Steve pointed out, “and you did it right here. The Avengers were supposed to be different than SHIELD.”

 

“Anyone remember Manhattan?” Hank asked rhetorically. “Tony drove a nuke into _space_ to stop an alien army pouring through a hole in the sky. Janet _punched through the Tesseract_ just to close that hole! We were all there, either 300 feet below, or 3 feet away. We’re the Avengers! We can bag arms dealers in our sleep at this point, but that up there? That’s the endgame. How do you guys plan on fighting an army with weapons and skills like we’ve never seen on Earth?”

 

“Together,” Steve said shortly, partially concerned for Hank’s sanity at this point.

 

“We’ll lose,” Hank shook his head. “ _Humanity_ would lose.”

 

“We’ll do that together too,” Steve countered, turning to look at Thor instead of the unsettling look in Hank’s eyes. “Thor’s right; Ultron is calling us out. I’d like to find him before he’s ready for us. The world’s a big place, so let’s start making it smaller.”

 

~*~*~

 

Halfway across the world near enough, Ultron had rebuilt himself, this time stronger than before. Two young adults approached him, one with their arms crossed over their chest.

 

“Talk,” one of them, a female, said in a dangerous tone. “And if you are wasting our time...” she trailed off, holding her hand up for him to see the red energy dancing between her fingers.

 

“You’re wondering why you can’t get into my head,” Ultron spoke, getting right to the point.

 

“Sometimes, it is hard. But sooner or later, every man shows himself,” the female said evenly, momentarily taken aback when Ultron comes into her view.

 

“Oh, I’m sure they do,” Ultron said in a condescending tone. “But you needed something more than a man. You chose a woman to unravel, while allowing Stark to take the scepter.”

 

“I did not expect Stark to do something like that,” the female shook her head. “The fear I saw within that woman, it was like no other fear I’ve seen. The woman is like no other I have seen. If I unravel her, I can unravel the rest of them.”

 

If Ultron’s face could show expressions, it would have an apprehensive look at the mention of unraveling the woman she’d been inside the head of.

 

“She is a complicated woman,” Ultron warned, almost as if he were dissuading her from attacking further. “Tearing her down would unite the Avengers stronger than before, and that’s not what I want.”

 

“Is that why you’ve come?” the female asked, tilting her head. “To end the Avengers?”

 

“I’ve come to save the world. But also, yeah, that too,” Ultron nodded.


	5. File Surfing, the Hard Way

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In a conference room, the Avengers dig through boxes upon boxes of files on Strucker in hopes of finding something.

Everyone had moved from the lab to a conference room, sitting around the large table with sombre looks on their faces. Hank still looked somewhat manic, but Janet was trying to calm him down.

 

“He’s all over the world,” Maria stated from her spot standing at the head of the table. “Robotics labs, weapons facilities, jet proportion labs; reports of a metal man, or men, coming in and emptying the place out.”

 

“Fatalities?” Steve asked, though he wasn’t sure he wanted that answer.

 

“Only when engaged,” Maria told him. “Mostly guys left in a fugue state, going on about worst memories, worst fears, and something too fast to see.”

 

“The twins,” Janet muttered, curling into Hank’s side at the mention of experiencing worst memories _and_ worst fears.

 

“It makes sense he’d go after them. They have a person in common,” Steve nodded, noting Janet’s reaction to ask about later.

 

“Not anymore,” Maria shook her head, bringing up a picture of Strucker’s dead body with the word ‘PEACE’ written on the wall behind him in blood, showing Steve.

 

Of course, nothing productive can get done with the Avengers unless someone is distracted and/or interrupting the discussion. This time, it was Clint, trying to hide his phone under the table so he could text. It was obscured, sure, but the annoying ‘ding’ it made whenever he got a text wasn’t.

 

“Hey Legolas, stop texting,” Tony called over. “We might have something.”

 

“Who was that?” Bruce asked with a slight frown.

 

“Must’ve been important, if he’s texting now,” Tony reasoned.

 

“Girlfriend,” Clint said dismissively, everyone too focused on him to see Nat’s faint smile or her eyes darting towards her lap as if reading something on her phone. Steve didn’t believe him, but there were more important matters to deal with than Clint’s love life.

 

“What’s this?” Tony asked, Steve having turned the tablet to show everyone else the picture.

 

“A message. Ultron killed Strucker,” Steve said grimly.

 

“He even did a Banksy at the crime scene, just for us,” Tony commented.

 

“This is a smokescreen,” Janet spoke up. “Why send a message if you’ve just given a speech?” she reasoned.

 

“Strucker knew something that Ultron wanted us to miss,” Nat said. “I bet he even wiped Strucker from the system too,” she sighed, to which Hank nodded.

 

“Every digital trace of Wolgang von Strucker has been wiped clean,” Hank informed her. “We’ve got nothing to go off of.”

 

“Actually, we do,” Maria said. “We’ve got paper copies of all of the files we had at the time SHIELD went down.”

 

“Agent Hill, has anyone ever told you that you’re a godsend?” Tony asked, trying to ease the tension.

 

“Not often, but it’s been known to happen,” Maria responded with a faint smile, disappearing for a few minutes and returning with three boxes of files that she placed on the table.

 

“Start with known associates,” Steve suggested. “He had a lot of friends, in a lot of places. Maybe one of them knows something.”

 

The team started sifting through files, some decades-old and covered in dust. A few coughs peppered the room from the dust cloud they were generating, though otherwise it was silent. Finally, Tony tried to get everyone’s attention, having found a potential lead.

 

“This guy, Ulysses Klaue, he’s a black market arms dealer that works along the African coast,” Tony began. “He was talking about finding something new, a game-changer. It’s all very ‘Ahab’.”

 

Thor made a gesture towards a mark on Klaue’s neck in the picture Tony was holding up. “That there on his neck, what is it?”

 

“Uh, probably just a tattoo,” Tony answered uncertainly.

 

“No, no, this is a tattoo,” Thor shook his head, showing a small design on his right shoulder. “That is a brand.”

 

“I’ll take a look,” Bruce offered, turning to the computer next to him to look into it. “It’s a word in an African dialect meaning ‘thief’, in a much less friendly way,” he read off the screen, showing the image to everyone else.

 

“What dialect?” Steve asked, not recognizing the script.

 

“Wakandan,” Hank said from his spot a good few metres across the room. “If this guy has a Wakandan thief brand, he’s probably got his hands on some very valuable materials at some point.”

 

“My father said he’d got the last of it though,” Tony frowned, scratching his chin.

 

“Apparently not,” Steve shook his head.

 

“I’m sorry, but uh, I don’t follow,” Bruce muttered. “What comes out of Wakanda?” he asked. Steve, Tony, Hank, and Janet’s eyes all turned to the star-crested shield propped against the wall beside the door.

 

“The strongest metal on Earth,” Janet answered.

 

“Does the file say where he is now?” Steve asked, prompting Tony to flip through another few pages until he found the answer.


	6. Mind Games

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A few of the Avengers infiltrate Klaue's last known location, only to be faced with Ultron, and their worst nightmares.

The salvage yard that Klaue was supposedly using as his ‘base’ didn’t look like much. It was run-down and filthy, though it may have been a tactic to deflect people from investigating. Most of the team stayed in the quinjet, only sending in Thor, Steve, Tony, Hank, and Janet. The fewer people in there, the better, as they had no idea what was in there or what would happen, so they sent in the ones who particularly _had_ to be there. Hank and Janet had the element of surprise, but the other three had to be careful not to make a sound so they wouldn’t be ambushed before they found what they were looking for.

 

“You know, it came at great personal cost,” a voice echoed through the halls, which the three scientists present recognized as Klaue. “It’s worth billions.” There was a brief silence, as if something was being done.

 

“There. Now so are you,” Ultron’s voice declared. “Though, money shouldn’t get in the way of the pursuit of science,” he mused, making Hank’s chest tighten.

 

“Dr. Pym,” Klaue noted, probably frowning.

 

“What?” Ultron responded, not knowing where this is going.

 

“Dr. Hank Pym, he’d say that all the time,” Klaue stated. “You’re one of his newest projects, I’d guess.”

 

“What?” Ultron said, getting defensive. “I’m not… I’m not. You think I’m one of Pym’s toys, the ones he tinkers with in his basement that never work? I’m no project of the Ant-Man.” There was a pause, followed by the sound of flesh being cut. “Oh, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. Ooh, I’m sure that’s going to be okay, it’s just, I don’t understand. Don’t compare me to Pym,” he rambled apologetically, the last line delivered with the sound of a rough kick. “It’s a thing with me. Pym’s a parasite.”

 

Hank had Janet drop him on Tony’s helmet, growing large enough to be seen and heard, while sitting cross-legged on top of Tony’s head.

 

“Hurtful, that really hits me,” he said flatly, though his chest tightened. “You’ll break your old man’s heart.”

 

“If I have to,” Ultron said passively, and he would’ve scowled if he were capable.

 

“Nothing needs to be broken,” Thor spoke up, hoping to diffuse the situation before it escalated.

 

“Clearly, you’ve never encountered a pinata,” Hank and Ultron said at the exact same time, causing Hank to glare at Ultron behind his mask.

 

“Okay, that was weird,” Tony frowned, wishing he could look up at Hank questioningly. However, Hank was on his head.

 

“Mr. Stark,” the male enhanced spoke up, accent thick and barely able to be understood by Steve. “What a pleasant surprise. This must be second-nature to you, just like old times,” he smirked tauntingly, pale blue eyes narrowed.

 

“This was never my life,” Tony stated, not shaking his head because Hank didn’t need to be thrown across the room right now.

 

“The two of you, it’s not too late to get out of this,” Steve said, turning to the twins.

 

“Oh, we will,” the female twin said ominously, a smirk on her face to match the tone.

 

“I know you’ve suffered. We ca-,” Steve began, only to be cut off by Ultron.

 

“Ugh, Captain America. God’s righteous man, pretending you can’t life without a war. I can’t physically throw up in my mouth, but...” Ultron taunted.

 

“If you believe in peace, then let us keep it,” Thor stated, Mjolnir poised and ready for a fight if needed.

 

“I think you’re confusing ‘peace’ with ‘quiet’,” Ultron snickered.

 

“Why do you need the Vibranium?” Hank asked with narrowed eyes, though if Ultron was any more like him, he’d get a smartass answer.

 

“I’m glad you asked, because I wanted to take a moment to explain my evil plan!”

 

_Ding, ding, ding, we have a Hank_ the actual Hank mentally cursed, for once upset that he was right about something.

 

Almost as soon as Ultron finished speaking, an army of repurpoused Iron Legionaires converged on the Avengers, causing Hank to flip gracefully off Tony’s head and return to normal size as he hit the ground. Thor and Steve worked fairly well together, hammer and shield taking down Legionaires in tandum. Tony found himself fighting both twins, losing horribly thanks to the male’s speed.

 

Hank, meanwhile, went face-to-face with Ultron, making himself just big enough that Ultron was shorter than him. Before any words could be exchanged, Ultron swung a nasty left hook at Hank’s gut, making him fall backwards and hit a wall, automatically returning to normal size.

 

Steve had managed to know the male twin down, though Ultron seemed to have planned for that.

 

“It’s time for some mind games,” he instructed the female twin, who smirked as she began her work on the Avengers, hands floated near their ears as red mist-like energy soaked into their minds. She made quick work of Steve and Tony, though Thor was a bit of a struggle. Once he was down, she turned to Hank, only to find the woman from the HYDRA base kneeling next to him. She muttered something under her breath in Sokovian before taking them down as well.

 

_Hank blinked as he found himself_ _standing in front of a memorial plaque in his and Janet’s favourite park in San Francisco. It was a simple plaque, a floral design etched into the gold plate as a frame. The text written on the plaque, however, made Hank take a step closer to make sure he’d read it right._

 

_In memory of Janet van Dyne_

_San Francisco’s favourite Wasp_

 

Hank’s eyes snapped open, sweat gathered on his forehead and making his mask uncomfortably stuck to his face. Janet looked like she was in some sort of daze, eyes misted over with an odd red colour that concerned Hank.

 

_Janet wasn’t in the same place as the last time. This time, it was a memory, not a fear. She knew it was a memory, because she had no fears connected to her childhood home; only bad memories._

 

_Confirming her thoughts came her mother from the main staircase, down into the living room. She was wearing the same thing Janet remembered, back when she was just 8._

 

_“Vernon, you can’t keep doing this!” her mother shouted up the stairs at her father. “You can’t just disappear for ‘business trips’ and come back drunk! You have a daughter, and she needs her father as much as she needs me. If you keep this up, I’m taking Janet and going to my mother’s.”_

 

_“_ _Alexandra, please, just listen,” Vernon pleaded, having made his way down the stairs._

 

_“What is there to listen to?” Alexandra snapped. “I’m going to visit my sister for a few days. Try not to get drunk while I’m gone.”_

 

_The memory flashed to eight-year-old Janet standing at a freshly filled grave, a beautiful headstone marking its location. She placed a single sunflower on the grave, wiping her eyes before running her fingers gently over the engraved letters spelling out her mother’s name._

 

Janet snapped out of the memory to find tears on her cheeks. She was still next to Hank though, so she hugged him tightly before helping him up to return to the quinjet.


	7. Safehouse Surprise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clint took over flying the quinjet, heading for a safehouse. Tony is absolutely and utterly baffled.

According to the Avengers that had stayed back on the quinjet, the female enhanced managed to rile Bruce up, unleashing the Hulk on a nearby city. Tony had to call in VERONICA, a high-durability armour made to subdue the Hulk. No one was outright campaigning for Bruce’s arrest, but it was up in the air.

 

Janet had settled in one of the seats near the window, staring blankly off into the distance as she hugged herself tightly. Hank sat next to her, but he didn’t say anything. She’d tell him when she knew she was ready to talk about it; she’d always been that way.

 

“Did she do it to you too?” Janet finally asked softly, turning to Hank.

 

“Yeah,” Hank muttered with a nod. “I take it she did it to you again?”

 

“I… I’m not sure,” Janet admitted. “It wasn’t a fear; it was a memory, from the day my mother left. It wasn’t nearly as horrible as the last time, but I still don’t ever want to relive that again. Once was enough.”

 

“Mine was a fear,” Hank mumbled, not sure if he should tell Janet what he saw. “It wasn’t very long, but it was my worst fear,” he told her. “A memorial plaque, back in that park in San Francisco where I asked you out for the first time.”

 

“I’m not going anywhere, any time soon, sweetheart,” Janet muttered, cupping his chin in her hand.

 

The two fell silent after that, staring out the window next to them to watch the world below them moving in a blur as the quinjet flew on.

 

“Alright, we’re here,” Clint called from the pilot’s seat, undoing his seatbelt so he could get out. Hank and Janet stood as well, more than ready to get off and go inside.

 

Stepping off the quinjet, Janet was almost immediately ambushed by her daughter Hope, who grinned up at her.

 

“You’re back!” Hope beamed, Janet bending down to pick her up.

 

“I am,” Janet chuckled. “Daddy’s back too. I think he went to find Auntie Laura.”

 

“Can we go find him?” Hope asked with a puppy-dog look that made Janet sigh softly.

 

“Of course, Jellybean,” Janet smiled, setting off to the house’s kitchen, because if Hank were anywhere, he’d be there.

 

As the rest of the Avengers got off the quinjet, Steve, Thor, Bruce, and Tony looked around in confusion.

 

“Where’d you bring us again?” Tony asked Clint, frowning.

 

“Safehouse,” Clint shrugged with a tiny smirk, only to be attacked by a little girl who couldn’t be much older than five.

 

“Daddy!” the little girl squealed, hugging him around the waist. “Are Mommy and Auntie Jan here too?” she asked excitedly.

 

“Why don’t you hug her and see?” Nat chuckled, coming up behind Clint. The little girl immediately detached herself from Clint, instead hugging Nat tightly.

 

“Mommy!” she beamed. “Auntie Laura let me paint something for you! C’mon!” she said excitedly, grabbing Nat’s hand and tugging her inside.

 

“What the hell is going on?” Tony blinked in disbelief after watching the little girl greeting Clint and Nat.

 

“I brought us to a safehouse,” Clint repeated. “Which also happens to be my _sister’s_ house,” he shrugged, smirking. “Laura watches the kids whenever we have to leave the state.”

 

“And she doesn’t get enough credit for it!” a woman with sandy-brown hair like Clint’s called as she approached, throwing an arm casually around Clint’s shoulders.

 

“I love the girls, I really do, but buddy, Lila won’t stop speaking Russian when she’s mad at Hope. Deal with your daughter, Clint. She’s not listening to me,” the woman Tony believed to be the sister, Laura, joked.

 

“Russian?” Clint chuckled with a raised eyebrow. “That’s her mother’s fault, not mine, and you know it.”

 

“I know,” Laura grinned, in that way younger siblings do. “I just wanted to embarrass you in front of your team. First impressions are important,” she reminded him.

 

“I know. Hank thought you were drunk the first time you two met,” Clint shot back, forgetting the other four Avengers for a minute as he teased his sister.

 

“I wasn’t!” Laura insisted with a laugh.

 

“If you say so,” Clint shook his head, turning back to the others. “Guys, this is my younger sister, Laura,” he told them, wanting to laugh at the befuddled expression on Tony’s face. “The little spitfire that just stole Nat is my daughter, Lila.”

 

“You… the two of you…?” Tony muttered, trying to process the information being presented to him. “ _What?_ ”

 

“All things considered, I’m surprised you hadn’t noticed by now,” Steve shrugged.

 

“Yeah, it was pretty obvious,” Bruce agreed.

 

“I could tell rather quickly,” Thor commented. “Doctor Banner is correct, they weren’t exactly subtle.”

 

“Am I literally the only one who didn’t know this?” Tony huffed in frustration.

 

“If it means anything, I didn’t know they had a daughter,” Steve commented.

 

“Okay, you can have an existential crisis inside,” Laura spoke up. “Lila’s gonna want food soon, and now that she knows Clint’s here, she’s gonna insist on helping him cook.”

 

“Translation: I hope you guys like macaroni and cheese with bacon bits in it,” Clint chuckled, ducking out from under Laura’s arm to head inside.

 

~*~*~

 

Just as Laura predicted, Lila grabbed a stepping stool to reach the height of the counter so she could help Clint cook. Surprisingly, she asked if they could make grilled cheese instead of macaroni and cheese. They made a ridiculous number of sandwiches, enough to feed everyone, and the team (and Laura, Lila, and Hope) scattered around the fair-sized kitchen to eat. Hope took her sandwiches with a small ‘thank you!’ to Lila, heading over to sit between her parents on the floor. Lila, on the other hand, was sitting with her mother, chatting excitedly about nothing in particular. Even with the ridiculous amount of people, it felt domestic; peaceful, even.

 

After they finished eating, most of the team decided turning in for the night would be a good idea. Thor ended up leaving, wanting to go to Asgard to discuss something. Probably what the female enhanced had shown him.

 

Laura directed everyone to a place they could crash, which worked out almost evenly. Hope and Lila had their own rooms at that point, which also housed beds for their parents if needed, so that took care of those six, and obviously Laura had her room to go to. Tony and Bruce ended up in bunkbeds that had been down in the basement, while Steve volunterily slept on the floor nearby. He didn’t mind it; maybe he’d get a better night’s sleep and forget the images that were now haunting him.


	8. A Day on the Farm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Laura Barton singlehandedly manages to hassle the remaining Avengers into doing some work around the farm for the day, until Fury makes an appearance.

After breakfast the next morning, Laura single-handedly managed to hassle the Avengers into doing some chores around the farm to pass time until they came up with a plan. Janet was down in the basement doing laundry with Hope, who very happily supplied detergent, if a bit too much. Bruce offered to take a look at the furnace that only worked half of the time, Tony ending up helping him because his alternative was chopping firewood. He’d let Steve and Hank have that job.

 

Hank, armed with the axe he always used here, was making quick work of the piles of wood next to him, having developed a rhythm after his first few times having to do it. Steve was mostly just tearing the wood in half with his bare hands, meaning something was likely bothering him.

 

“Thor tell you where he was going?” Hank asked. Maybe a conversation would help.

 

“Sometimes, my teammates don’t tell me things,” Steve said, not looking over at Hank, but Hank still knew what he meant. “I was kinda hoping Thor would be the exception.”

 

“Give him time,” Hank suggested. “We don’t know _what_ he saw.”

 

“‘Earth’s Mightiest Heroes’, pulled apart like cotton candy,” Steve said bitterly, ripping a log in half with considerably more force than he had been before.

 

“I think everyone’s more than a little shaken up,” Hank muttered. “Jan’s been skittish since she snapped out of it, and I can tell Nat’s bothered too.”

 

“What about you, Hank?” Steve countered.

 

“I… don’t know how to feel,” Hank admitted, splitting a log in just the wrong spot that it splintered. “I didn’t see much, but what I did see...”

 

“I know what you mean,” Steve agreed quietly, happening to glance up and see Tony heading for the barn. He pointed it out to Hank, who just stifled a laugh into his palm.

 

“Laura must’ve convinced him to fix the tractor,” Hank smiled. “He’s going to have fun with that old John Deere. It hasn’t worked the entire time I’ve known Clint and Laura. Five bucks says it was because he was being an asshole.”

 

“I won’t make bets on friends,” Steve shook his head, “but you’re probably right.”

 

Fifteen minutes later, the Avengers were scattered around Laura’s kitchen again, though Laura had taken Lila and Hope elsewhere when she saw who was there.

 

“Ultron took you all out of play so he could buy himself some time,” Fury stated, having been called in to wrangle the team pretty much. “My contacts all say he’s building something. The amount of Vibranium he made off with, it can’t be just one thing.”

 

“What about Ultron himself?” Steve asked.

 

“He’s easy to track. He’s everywhere. Guy’s multiplying faster than a Catholic rabbit,” Fury informed Steve. “Still doesn’t help us get an angle on the plans though.”

 

“He still going after launch codes?” Tony asked.

 

“Yeah, he is,” Fury nodded. “But he isn’t making any headway.”

 

“I cracked the Pentagon’s firewall on a dare in high school,” Tony commented.

 

“Yeah, well I contacted our friends at the NEXUS about that,” Fury said.

 

“NEXUS?” Steve frowned.

 

“The world internet hub in Oslo, Norway,” Hank answered. “Every single byte of data on the internet goes through there. Fastest internet connection in the world too.”

 

“What’d they say?” Bruce asked.

 

“He’s still fixated on the missiles, but the codes are constantly being changed,” Fury answered.

 

“By who?” Hank asked, frowning as he tried to think of anyone capable of doing that.

 

“Parties unknown,” Fury responded.

 

“Do we have an ally?” Nat asked.

 

“Ultron’s got an enemy. Those aren’t the same thing. Still, I’d pay folding money to know who it is,” Fury told her.

 

“I might need to visit Oslo, find out who the ‘unknown’ is,” Hank said. “Might need Tony’s help,” he added as an after-thought, shrugging. Fury probably wouldn’t let him go anywhere alone.

 

“Nice talk, boss, but uh, when I saw you, I was hoping you’d have more than that,” Nat commented, leaning against a doorframe.

 

“I do. I have you,” Fury said. “Back in the day, I had eyes everywhere, ears everywhere else. Here we are, back on Earth, with nothing but our wit and our will to save the world. Let’s outsmart this platinum bastard.”

 

“Unless you’re a parent to a small child, Steve doesn’t like that kind of talk,” Nat smirked teasingly.

 

“You know what, Romanoff?” Steve shot back, laughing slightly.

 

“So, what does he want?” Fury asked.

 

“To become better. Better than us. He keeps building bodies,” Steve responded.

 

“Person bodies,” Hank added. “The human form is inefficient, biologically speaking, we’re out modded.”

 

“Yet he keeps coming back to it,” Tony nodded.

 

“Hey Hank, when you tried programming your security bot to protect the world, you failed spectacularly,” Nat shot over to Hank in the corner, who almost stuck his tongue out at her.

 

“They don’t need to be protected. They need to evolve,” Hank said. “That’s what he said. He’s going to try to evolve,” he realized.

 

“How?” Fury pressed.

 

“Has anyone been in contact with Dr. Helen Cho recently?” Bruce asked.

 


	9. Old Friends, New Allies?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clint drops off a 'package' to the science crew, which results in heavy debating, flaring tempers, and an interrupting God of Lightning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cue: my tin can child

“Clint, Nat, with me,” Steve instructed, gearing up for the mission ahead.

 

“Alright, strictly recon,” Tony reminded them.

 

“Tony, Janet, and I will hit the NEXUS,” Hank said. “We’ll meet up when we’re done.”

 

“If Ultron really is building a body…” Steve trailed off.

 

“He’ll be more powerful than us. Maybe all of us,” Hank said. “An android, designed by a robot.”

 

“You know, I miss back when the weirdest thing science created was _me_ ,” Steve said idly, fastening his belt.

 

“I’ll drop Banner off at the tower. Mind if I borrow Ms. Hill?” Fury offered.

 

“She’s all yours, apparently,” Tony nodded. “What are you going to do?”

 

“I don’t know,” Fury shrugged. “Something dramatic, I hope.”

 

~*~*~

 

Hank and Tony set up pretty quickly when they got to Oslo, Janet opting to keep watch in case someone followed them there.

 

“A hacker that’s faster than Ultron,” Tony mused. “He could be anywhere, and this is the centre of everything,” he added, turning to Hank. “We’re just two guys looking for a needle in a _massive_ haystack.”

 

“How do you plan on doing that?” the NEXUS tech that was overseeing them asked.

 

“With a magnet,” Hank said with a grin.

 

~*~*~

 

Later, in a lab, Tony, Bruce, Hank, and Janet stood around the Cradle that Clint had brought them.

 

“Anything on Nat?” Bruce asked, having been told Nat was unreachable.

 

“Not yet,” Tony said. “She’s alive though. Ultron would rub our faces in it if she was.”

 

“This thing is sealed tightly,” Clint told the others, patting the lid a few times.

 

“We’re going to need to access the program, break it down from within,” Hank said.

 

“Is there any chance Nat might have left you a message, outside the internet? Old-school spy style?” Tony asked, turning to Clint.

 

“There’s a few nets I can cast,” Clint nodded grimly, not liking that Nat was unaccounted for overseas. He headed off to do some digging, texting Laura as he walked.

 

“I can work on tissue degeneration, if one of you can fry whatever operational system Dr. Cho implanted,” Bruce offered, only for Tony and Hank to shake their heads sheepishly.

 

“About that...” Hank trailed off. “I need you to trust me.”

 

“Kinda don’t right now,” Bruce frowned.

 

“Our ally? The guy scattering the nuclear launch codes? We found him,” Hank said, bringing a very familiar consciouness map to view.

 

“Hello, Dr. Banner,” JARVIS chimed.

 

“Ultron didn’t go after JARVIS because he was angry,” Janet spoke up. “He attacked him because he was scared of what JARVIS could do.”

 

“So JARVIS went underground. Scattered, dumped his memories, but not his protocols,” Tony went on. “He didn’t even know he was in there, til we found him and put him back together.”

 

“Are you guys trying to get at what I think you are?” Bruce sighed. “You three want me to help you put JARVIS into whatever Ultron’s got in that cradle?”

 

“No, of course not,” Tony said quickly, shaking his head.

 

“We want to help _you_ put JARVIS into the cradle,” Hank muttered, rubbing the back of his neck.

 

“Bio-organics is kind of your thing,” Janet added.

 

“And you just assume JARVIS’ operational matrix can beat Ultron’s?” Bruce asked skeptically, though he had a feeling he would lose this fight.

 

“JARVIS has been one-uping him this whole time,” Hank reasoned. “This is the opportunity we’ve needed,” he muttered, refering to himself and Janet. “We can create Ultron’s perfect self, without all the homicidal glitches he thinks are a ‘winning’ personality. We have to.”

 

“I believe it’s worth a go, Doctor,” JARVIS commented. He had discussed this with the other three once he’d been put back together.

 

“I’m in a time loop,” Bruce groaned, shaking his head. “This is where it went wrong before, trying to integrate JARVIS into Ultron.”

 

“I know what everyone’s going to say, but they’re already saying it,” Hank said with a strained tone. “We’re mad scientists, buddy. We’re monsters. You’ve got to own it like the rest of us have, make a stand. This isn’t a loop, it could be the end of the line.”

 

~*~*~

 

“The framework’s not compatible,” Hank groaned in frustration, looking down at the ground.

 

“The genetic coding tower is at 97%. You’ve got to upload that schematic within the next three minutes,” Bruce warned. Of course, Steve took that opportunity to enter the lab, both twins trailing behind him.

 

“I’m only going to say this once,” Steve said evenly. “Shut it down.”

 

“I can’t do that, Steve,” Hank shook his head, still looking at the ground as his hands gripped the edge of the desk he was standing at. “Not now.”

 

“You don’t know what you’re doing,” Steve pointed out sharply.

 

“All due respect, Captain Rogers, right now I know more about what I’m doing than you do,” Hank shot back, finally looking up and letting go of the desk to look at Steve.

 

“How do we know she’s not in your head?” Tony commented, gesturing towards the female twin.

 

“I know you are all upset. Angry,” she said carefully.

 

“Oh, we’re well beyond that,” Bruce huffed. “I could choke the life out of you and not change a shade.”

 

“Angry got kicked out a few hundred miles ago, while I was fishing for an old friend in the NEXUS’ computer system,” Hank said evenly, hands in the back pockets of his jeans and an unreadable, kind of scary look in his eyes.

 

“You do not know what Ultron has created,” the female twin insisted. “This… this _thing_ , it is dangerous.”

 

Suddenly, a bullet tore through the glass beneath the male twin’s feet, sending him falling as his sister tried to reach for him.

 

“Pietro!” she gasped in shock.

 

“What, you didn’t see that coming?” Clint taunted from the rafters with a smirk.

 

Once again, there was a distruption in the ‘debate’ over the thing in the cradle. This time, Thor burst into the room, Mjolnir charged with lightning as he swung it hard, landing on the lid of the cradle. It burst open, revealing a body with a strange complexion, and a golden gem embedded in its forehead.

 

The body sat up, frowning slightly as it looked around.

 

“I’m sorry, that was… odd,” the body muttered, turning to Thor. “Thank you.”

 

“Thor, you helped create this?” Steve frowned, not processing what was happening properly.

 

“I’ve had a vision,” Thor said. “A vision of a whirlpool that sucks in all hope of life, and at its centre is _that_ ,” he continued, pointing to the glowing gold gemstone in the body’s forehead.

 

“What, the gem?” Janet frowned.

 

“It is the Mind Stone, one of the six Infinity Stones,” Thor answered. “It is unparalleled in its destructive capabilities.”

 

“Why would you bring it here then?” Steve asked in concern.

 

“Because Dr. Pym is correct,” Thor said gravely. “The Avengers cannot defeat Ultron.”

 

“Not alone,” the body nodded.

 

“Why does you ‘vision’ sound like JARVIS?” Clint asked from his spot up in the rafters.

 

“We… kinda reconfigured JARVIS’ matrix to create something entirely new,” Hank muttered, rubbing the back of his neck.

 

“I think I’ve had my share of new,” Steve muttered under his breath.

 

“You think me a child of Ultron?” Thor’s ‘vision’ asked with a tilted head.

 

“You’re not?” Steve challenged, still confused.

 

“I am not Ultron,” the ‘vision’ shook his head. “Nor am I JARVIS. I am...”

 

“I looked into your head, and all I saw was annihilation,” the female twin spoke up, voice small and hesitent.

 

“Look again,” the ‘vision’ said softly.

 

“Yeah, her seal of approval don’t mean jack to me,” Clint called down.

 

“Their powers, the horrors in our heads, Ultron himself. They all came from the Mind Stone, and they’re nothing compared to what it can unleash. With it on our side...”

 

“Is it? Are you? Are you on our side?” Steve asked the ‘vision’.

 

“I do not think it Is that simple,” the ‘vision’ admitted.

 

“It better get real simple, real soon,” Clint warned.

 

“I am on the side of life. Ultron is not, he will end it all,” the ‘vision’ stated.

 

“What’s he waiting for?” Hank asked, not liking the hypothetical answer he’d come to.

 

“You,” the ‘vision’ said simply, looking directly at Hank.

 

“Where?” Bruce asked.

 

“Sokovia,” Clint said. “He’s got Nat there too.”

 

“If we’re wrong about you, if you’re the monster that Ultron made you to be...” Steve trailed off.

 

“What will you do?” the ‘vision’ asked, though it quickly dawned on him what the Captainw as talking about. “I do not want to _kill_ Ultron. He’s unique, and he is in pain. But that pain will roll over the Earth, so he must be destroyed. Every form he has built, every trace of his presence on the net, we have to act now. And not one of us could do it without the others. Maybe I am a monster; I do not think I would know if I was. I am not what you are, or what you intended, so there may be no way to make you trust me. But we need to go,” he finished, picking Thor’s hammer up off the cradle as if it were foam, handing it to Thor as he walked out.

 

“Three minutes. Get what you need,” Steve ordered, effectively scattering everyone as they went to find their gear.


	10. The Battle of Sokovia

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Avengers, alongside three new allies, throw everything they have into protecting the civillians trapped in Ultron's warzone, all while trying to take down Ultron himself.

“No way we all get out of this alive,” Tony muttered. “Even one tin can left standing means we’ve lost. It’s gonna be blood on the floor.”

 

“I’ve got no plans tomorrow night,” Steve commented.

 

“I get first crack,” Hank said an unusually calm voice. “I’m the one he’s been waiting for, after all.”

 

“That is true. He hates you the most,” the ‘vision’ commented idly as he floated by.

 

“Ultron knows we’re coming. Odds are we’ll be riding into heavy fire, and that’s what we signed up for,” Steve said, switching to ‘captain mode’. “The people of Sokovia though, they didn’t. Our priority is to get them out of there and to somewhere safe. All they want is to live their lives in peace, and that’s not going to happen today. But we can do our best to protect them, we can get the job done, and we find out what Ultron’s been building. We find Romanoff, we clear the field, keep the fight between us. Ultron thinks we’re monsters and we’re what’s wrong with the world. This isn’t just about beating him, it’s about whether or not he’s right.”

 

As instructed, the Avengers were starting the evacuation, though Tony’s new AI FRIDAY spoke up after about ten minutes.

 

“Tell Dr. Pym he’s in the church, boss,” FRIDAY said. “It looks like he’s waiting for him.”

 

“You hear that, Hank?” Tony asked, using the comm system.

 

“Yeah, I got it,” Hank responded, heading for the church with Janet right behind him. Stepping into the church, Hank felt a chill like none other.

 

“Come to confess your sins?” Ultron asked idly, not yet turning around.

 

“How long do you have?” Hank responded casually, trying to stop himself from freaking out.

 

“More than you,” Ultron said simply, finally turning around. Janet was tiny and sitting on Hank’s shoulder, so she couldn’t be seen.

 

“I figured you’d say that,” Hank sighed, shaking his head. “That’s definitely something I’d say in this kind of scenario. It’s a smartass thing.”

 

“You’re stalling to protect the people,” Ultron observed flatly, unamused.

 

“Yeah, well, that’s the plan,” Hank nodded slowly.

 

“I’ve moved beyond your mission. I’m free,” Ultron said, something erupting from the floor beneath their feet. “What, did you think you were the only one stalling?”

 

“No, actually,” Hank replied. “You’re pretty much me. None of your tactics are original,” he pointed out.

 

“This is how you end, Dr. Pym. This is how to ensure the safety of the masses,” Ultron declared, though the Vision appeared behind Hank, frowning.

 

“My Vision. They really did take everything from me,” Ultron mused.

 

“You set the terms,” the Vision said simply. “You can change them.” With that, a fight erupted between the two, Hank taking a few steps back.

 

“Hey Tony.” Hank said into his comm, “can you get FRIDAY to tell me what the Vision’s doing right now?”

 

“He’s burning Ultron out of the internet, Dr. Pym,” FRIDAY responded. “He can’t escape through there now.”

 

“You shut me out!” Ultron shouted in anger. “You think I care? You take away my world, I take away yours,” he sneered, activing the Vibranium core and causing the earth to shake violently.

 

“Do you see now? The beauty of it, the inevitability. You rise, only to fall. You, Avengers, you are my meteor, my swift and terrible sword, and the Earth will crack under the weight of your failure. Purge me from your computers, turn my own flesh against me. It means nothing. When the dust settles, the only thing living in this world will be metal,” Ultron monologued, looking directly at Hank.

 

Outside the church, Ultron’s robotic army brought Hell down upon the Sokovian city, destroying everything and everyone but each other. The Avengers were doing the best they could, but seeing as the city was literally flying, it was getting increasingly harder to do so. Hank and Janet had bolted from the church to go help when they realized that, leaving Ultron to just spectate.

 

Janet fired blasts at robots while Hank went giant to help save more people in one trip, though he was so unused to being Giant-Man that he kept stumbling and tripping around.

 

“You can’t save them all,” Ultron boasted from the bridge. “You’ll never...” he began, only to pause in order to throw a robot over the bridge when it tried to attack _him_.

 

“You’ll never what?” Steve shot back. “You didn’t finish!”

 

“Tony, what’s the status on this place’s little trip?” Hank called over, shrinking back down to move debris easier.

 

“The anti-gravs are rigged to flip,” FRIDAY answered instead of Tony. “Touch ‘em, they’ll go full reverse thrust. This city isn’t going to go down slowly.”

 

“It’s made of Vibranium,” Janet spoke up as she fire blasts at a group of robots in front of her. “Maybe if we could get Thor to hit it...”

 

“It’ll crack, but that’s not enough,” FRIDAY cut in. “The impact would still be devastating.”

 

“What if we cap the other end, keep the atomic action doubling back?” Hank suggested, punching a robot in the face as he was trying to rescue a civillian caught under some debris.

 

“That could vaporize the city, and everyone on it,” FRIDAY warned.

 

“The next wave is going to hit any minute!” Steve called out. “What have you guys got?”

 

“Nothing useful,” Hank sighed. “Unless a way to blow up the city counts as useful.”

 

“It’d keep it from impacting the surface, if we can clear it,” Tony added.

 

“I asked for a solution, not an escape plan,” Steve reminded them.

 

“Impact radius is getting large every second,” Janet noted. “We have to make a choice.”

 

“Cap, these people are going nowhere,” Clint pointed out. “If they find a way to blow this rock...”

 

“Not til everone is safe,” Steve said firmly.

 

“Everyone up here versus everyone down there?” Nat replied. “There’s no math there.:

 

“I’m not leaving this rock with civillians still on it,” Steve insisted, shield knocking down two robots in one go.

 

“I never said anything about leaving,” Nat shook her head, causing Steve to look over at her, concerned. “There’s worse ways to go. Where else am I going to get a view like this?”

 

“Glad you like the view, Romanoff. It’s about to get better,” the voice of Nick Fury blasted from some speakers, a helicarrier rising into view. “I pulled her out of mothballs with a couple old friends. She’s dusty, but she’ll do.”

 

“Fury, you son of a bitch,” Steve said, shaking his head.

 

“Ooh, you kiss your mother with that mouth?” Fury teased.

 

“Altitude is 18,000 feet amd climbing,” Maria stated.

 

“Lifeboat’s secure to deploy. Disengage in three, two… take ‘em out, boys,” a specialist tech said, delpoying lifeboats from the helicarrier.

 

“This is SHIELD?” the male enhaced, Pietro, asked curiously.

 

“This is what SHIELD is _supposed_ to be,” Steve answered.

 

“This is not so bad,” Pietro commented with a shrug.

 

As Maria and Fury dealt with incoming bogies, Hank started bringing people over to the lifeboats, about halfway to Giant-Man so he was faster and could carry more people.

 

“I got it!” Tony suddenly shouted. “Create a heat seal. We can supercharge the spire from below.”

 

“Running numbers,” FRIDAY hummed, silent for a few moments. “A heal seal could work with enough power.”

 

“Thor, I’ve got a plan!” Tony called out.

 

“We’re out of time,” Thor informed him. “They’re coming for the core.”

 

“Rhodey, get the rest of the people on board the carrier,” Tony instructed.

 

“On it,” Rhodey replied, going off to do just that.

 

The Avengers regrouped with Thor and Vision, some showing visible signs of exhaustion.

 

“What’s the drill?” Nat asked, trying not to let anyone (especially Clint) see that she wasn’t putting as much weight on her left leg.

 

“That’s the drill,” Tony said, pointing to the Vibranium core. “If Ultron gets a hand on the core, we lose.”

 

“Speak of the Devil,” Janet huffed, Ultron approaching the team.

 

“Is this the best you can do?” Thor yelled out, which was a bad idea. With one swift motion of his hand, Ultron summoned an entire army of his robots.

 

“You had to ask, didn’t you?” Hank grumbled.

 

“This is the best I can do,” Ultron said. “This is what I’ve wanted; all of you, versus all of me. How could you possibly hope to stop me?”

 

“Like the old man said: together,” Tony shot back. The robots began attacking, the Avengers attacking right back.

 

“You know, with the benefit of hindsight...” Ultron hummed, his robots beginning to retreat. Hulk came flying at Ultron though, knocking him quite a ways away.

 

“We’ve got to move out,” Steve said. “Even I can tell the air’s getting thin. You guys get to the boats, I’ll sweep for stragglers, be right behind you.”

 

“What about the core?” Clint asked, though he did begin making his way over.

 

“I will protect it,” the female twin, Wanda, said. “It is my job.”

 

Hank chose not to follow Steve’s orders, and Janet refused to go until she _knew_ everyone else was going to be safe.

 

“Thor, I need you back at the church,” Tony said.

 

“Is this the last of them?” Thor asked, motioning towards the last lifeboat.

 

“Looks like it,” Janet confirmed. “Everyone else is on the carrier already.”

 

“Tony, you know we may not make it out of this, right?” Hank said solemnly, making his way over to the church as well.

 

“Maybe not,” Thor nodded. Ultron appeared once more, this time in a jet, using the on-board weaponry to shoot at the Avengers while singing an eerie rendition of that Pinocchio song no one could remember the name of at the time.

 

Clint had found one remaining little boy, but as he was getting him out from under an overturned car, Ultron’s shots came far too close. Clint instinctively covered the kid with his own body so he wouldn’t get hit, though he felt something physically shove him.

 

“Bet you didn’t see that coming,” Pietro smirked, holding one hand firmly on his left side, which looked to be bleeding.

 

Everything after that happened so quickly it was hard to process. The Avengers couldn’t quite comprehend what had been done, even after making it back down to the ground.


	11. The New Team

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With the debriefing done and a new facility acquired, the Avengers still remaining prepare to begin training the newest members of the team.

Hank could barely function during the debriefing and subsequent pestering that came along with the Battle of Sokovia. He felt hollow, almost. Like he was just a shell whose contents had been removed, yet he was kept intact. Janet couldn’t find a way to cheer him up, no matter how hard she tried. Even after they’d returned to Laura’s farm to pick up Hope, he wasn’t himself.

 

In the days that followed, Hank slowly returned to who he was. There were things about him that were wildly different from before, never to be the same again. The experience changed Hank, for better or worse he couldn’t tell.

 

A week or so after Sokovia, after Tony decided he needed some time away, the remaining Avengers gathered at the new facility Tony had fixed up for them, from an old Stark Industries storage facility in the middle of nowhere, New York.

 

Janet was trying to cheer Hank up by poking his nose while telling terrible jokes, and it seemed to work, if only a little.

 

“You three ready to go in there?” Steve asked, a tablet in hand.

 

“How are we looking?” Nat asked, turning to face Steve.

 

“Well, we’re not the ‘27 Yankees,” Steve observed.

 

“We’ve got some heavy hitters though,” Janet commented.

 

“They’re good, but they’re not a team yet,” Steve nodded.

 

“Let’s get them there, then,” Hank said. “We got ourselves there. Now we’ve got to do it for them.”

 

“Let’s go,” Steve said, the four Avengers entering a training room that had been set up. They surveyed the people in front of them, taking stock of what they were working with.

 

Falcon was actually on the ground for once, adjusting his gloves. Rhodey was just standing there in the War Machine armour, mask off. Vision was floating a few feet off the ground, as it seemed he tended to do, simply watching everyone. The twins were having a heated discussion in Sokovian, which no one could actually understand. They were a rag-tag group to say the least, but they had potential.

 

“Avengers, assemble!”


End file.
